Computer aided assessment
Once you have completed the analysis and learning outcomes, you need to decide upon how to assess your learner's achievements against the stipulated learning outcomes. This document introduces web based or computer aided assessment succinctly.
I would agree with the statements
- "From our students' point of view, assessment always defines the actual curriculum." (Ramsden. P, 1992)
i.e. we (as students) are only interested in what is required to pass/achieve a good grade. It is well known that if a student is not assessed on a subject or topic the degree of engagement will be low if not non existent. HE promotes autonomy and reflection, yet is primarily assessment driven.
Formative and summative assessment (on a lesser scale) of students for knowledge checking, self checking and additional interaction and engagement has been adopted by many lecturers using a VLE. This use of CAA has perhaps seen the biggest uptake of "elearning" in recent years.
This quote from Dr Jane Seale
"The most common kind of question that is used in CAA tests is objective test questions where answers are selected from or compared to a limited set of pre-defined responses to a question. Computerised marking is considered appropriate or useful with such questions because no judgement has to be made about the correctness of the answer."
Read the full article on using CAA here.
Pros of CAA:
- Ease of creating a reusable bank of objective questions
- Reuse
- Automated marking
- Randomisation of questions
- Ease of update
- Eliminates marking & second marking
- Eliminates human error in marking
- Is purely objective
- It is proven the more students use formative CAA , the better they achieve at summative assessments
- Question types are many & varied, not just multi-choice anymore
Cons of CAA:
- Does not test higher order cognition
- Well designed questions take time & skills (IT as well)
- Well designed feedback takes time
- No follow up support for students
- Simple objective questions promote "chimping" in students
- Overuse can degrade the pedagogic advantages of well designed formative questions
- Summative assessments require robust and secure systems
- Students need a modicum of IT ability
Formative assessment usually occurs by directly following an activity or chunk of theory.
Finally, here are three website links that give very good advice on how to write effective assessments to test both simple objective (lower order skills) and higher order cognitive processing.
- CAA centre frequently asked questions
http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/resources/faqs/index.shtml
- CAA centre designing assessments to promote higher order skills
http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/resources/faqs/higher.shtml
- Building better e-assessments
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/jun2001/driscoll.html
